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SCOTT SIMON, host: This is the time of year when various authorities release lists of words, phrases and acronyms that have recently joined the English language. BFF, re-tweet, unfriend, and vuvuzela made many current lists. I'm glad for all of them. But there's one phrase I hear almost every day that I don't like at all: I'm just saying.

Its origins are murky. Some people swear they heard it in an early Eddie Murphy routine. Others insist it dates from "Seinfeld"(譯名《宋飛傳》，美國(guó)情景喜劇，1989年7月5日開(kāi)始在NBC播出) episodes. In any case, the roots of the phrase seem to be sitcom(情景喜劇), not Shakespeare. I'm just saying.

Each week, I get emails and messages that go something like: You are witless(無(wú)知的，愚蠢的，發(fā)瘋的), stupid and immoral, and I wouldn't let you near my tropical fish for fear you'd contaminate them with your depravity. Just saying.

Saying I'm just saying puts a fire escape(太平梯，救火梯，安全出口) onto the end of a sentence. It lets you express a stern, even rude, opinion, but not really. You're just saying. It invites the listener to discount what we've just heard, even as we're reeling from it.

The Urban Dictionary website explains that the phrase makes it possible to deliver a rude comment or burn(傷害性的話(huà)語(yǔ)) and have it bounce off simply as an opinion disguised as an objective opinion, and who can argue with you over an opinion that you don't apparently support?

Imagine what the phrase might have done in earlier times. What if Moses(摩西) had told Pharaoh(法老), Let my people go. Just saying. What if Henny Youngman(漢尼楊曼,美國(guó)喜劇演員) had said, Take my wife. I'm just saying. What if FDR(富蘭克林) tried to rally Americans out of Depression(大蕭條) by decreeing(法令，政令): The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I'm just saying. Or if Churchill(丘吉爾) had tried to rouse Britain in 1940 by declaring: We shall fight them on the beaches, in the air, in the hills, and we shall never surrender. I'm just saying.

What if Romeo had seen Juliet and gushed(滔滔不絕): See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek. Just saying. She might have run off with Tybalt(蒂博爾特，茱麗葉的表哥).

I'm glad that the English language gets enriched each year with new phrases. But just saying seems designed to let us express ourselves sharply but without conviction. It's a way of being colorful without consequences - all lip and no heart. Did we really need a new phrase to help us be more snide(諷刺的，含沙射影的), snarky(尖銳批評(píng)的) and insincere(不真誠(chéng)的，不誠(chéng)懇的)?

What if Stevie Wonder(史提夫·汪達(dá)，美國(guó)七八十年代最有影響的流行音樂(lè)家之一) had sung: You are the sunshine of my life. Just saying. Some hit(轟動(dòng)一時(shí)作品；流行音樂(lè)) that'd be.

(Soundbite of song, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life")

Mr. STEVIE WONDER (Musician): (Singing) I feel like this is the beginning, though I've loved you for a million years. And if I thought our love was ending, I'd find myself drowning in my own tears. You are the sunshine of my life...

SIMON: Just listening to NPR News.

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